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Shrinkage

September 05, 2013

Your employees are a
tremendous source of information and insight. They can share how to deliver a
better customer experience, or how to sell more. They might be able to tell you
about products you don't carry but that your customers might be interested in.
They may well know how to attract more customers. All you have to do is ask.

You can ask your
staff individually, or you can ask as part of a group brainstorming session.
Whichever way you choose, the key is to frame your questions as forward-looking
statements so the staff doesn't worry about you being defensive if you don't
like what you hear.

Don't ask,
"What can we do to improve our customer experience?" since that can
easily be interpreted as you saying that the store isn't delivering a good
experience. Instead, ask "What can we do to deliver an even better
customer experience in the future?"

I like to zero in on
a specific area. When you ask a broad question like "What can we do
better?" most people will struggle. But if you ask, "How can we
increase our blue widget sales by 10% in September?" most employees can
come up with some ideas.

It also helps to
encourage your staff to take into consideration what it takes to implement the
ideas. A store could increase blue widget sales by 10% by putting up twenty
billboards around town, but that wouldn't be very cost effective.

Here's a tool I use
for plotting ideas when brainstorming with a group. Take a flipchart and write
your question across the top. For this example I'll say, "What actions can
we take to make our customer experience even more enjoyable and special?"

Next, create a four
square grid with two axis like this.

The horizontal axis
along the bottom is impact on the customer/sales/etc., with low to high going
from left to right. An idea on the far right would be a huge WOW, an idea in
the middle would be something different, and on the left it would be a nice
touch.

The vertical axis on
the left is ease of implementation, from hard at the bottom to easy at the top.
This includes both monetary cost and time and effort to implement. Something in
the bottom would be very difficult and expensive to implement, and something in
the top would be both low cost and simple to do.

As you brainstorm,
plot the ideas on the flipchart based on the idea's impact on the customer and
ease of implementation.

A major renovation
might be a big WOW for the customer, but it's very costly and hard to do. It
would be plotted in the bottom-right quadrant.

Sending thank you
cards will have some impact on the customer, and implementation would not be
difficult. That idea would be plotted on the right side of the upper-left
quadrant.

The best ideas are
the ones in the upper-right quadrant. They have a big impact on the customer's
experience and they're easy to implement. The least effective
ideas are in the lower-left quadrant as they have a low impact on the customer
and are difficult to implement.

The upper-left
quadrant ideas are sometimes nice, low-hanging fruit. The idea will have a small
impact, and it's fairly easy to knock out. The high-impact ideas in the
lower-right quadrant usually need study and planning, since they're harder
and/or more costly to implement.

Finally, as a group
you can decide which ideas the team will run with right away, which ones might
happen down the road, and which will be tabled for the time being.

The same approach
works on staffing, improving marketing, and planning how you can maximize your
opportunity to have an extraordinary fall and holiday

So let me ask,
are you getting enough ideas from your team? Even more important, are you
taking the action to make those ideas a reality?

---------------

Doug
Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps
companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results.
Visit the Dynamic Experiences Group website,
or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an
extraordinary experience and results.

November 14, 2007

Once
a year or so I try to write something about internal theft. Last year
by accident I did it on Valentine's Day. I'm sure there is something
very Freudian there so I vowed to never make that mistake again.

Like
many things in life, internal theft is not an enjoyable topic but one
that's important to talk about. If you'd rather skip this topic then
just delete this email and I'll talk with you next week about the 25 Keys to Having a Stress-Free Holiday.

Please
don't take offense that the manager or owner asked you to read this
newsletter. According to the National Retail Federation's annual Retail
Security Survey, nearly 50% of the $41.6 billion dollars lost by
retailers was from employee theft. The exact loss for 2006 was $19.5
billion. Yikes.

But why do this right before the holidays you
ask? With the influx of seasonal employees and the added pressures on
all us during the holidays, it's just a good time to have our annual
discussion on this touchy subject. And afterwards we can move on enjoy
the season.

Now I don't know about you, but whenever I worked in
a store and we discussed internal theft I almost always got worked up.
Either I was mad because I felt I was being accused of something or I
was ready to confess to taking the pencil home by accident.

Whenever
I do bring this topic up it seems everyone always says they've never
done it and most people will even say they've never even thought about
stealing something. I'm not sure I completely believe them but who am
I to say different.

Here's the deal. Stealing anything from work is about the stupidest thing we could ever do.

I
think it's human nature for us to consider doing something we know we
shouldn't do. I can't be the only person in the world who has had
those arguments between the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the
other! Okay, I've been watching too many old cartoons but throughout
my years in retail from time to time the thought would occasionally
occur to me that maybe I could "borrow" something from the store. Of
course I didn't consider it stealing because I wasn't that type of
person.

And 99.9% of the time I'm not that type of person. But
when I was tired or felt underappreciated by my manager or was thinking
I was underpaid, these thoughts entered my mind. It happens. Luckily
for me I would either think through the consequences or hear the voice
inside of one of my parents or grandparents and that would stop the
dangerous thinking.

The sad fact is that I've met a lot of
people who didn't think through those consequences or listen to any
voices inside them telling them to stop. I've seen lives shattered
because of one wrong decision at work. I've shared with my Daily Retail Experience readers about having to fire a favorite cashier as well as employees I had become quite friendly with.

There
was the store manager I knew who was arrested and taken out of the
store in handcuffs in full view of his staff. Company representatives
and the police went to his home and confiscated the stolen products.
Those stolen products included jewelry he had given his wife, toys he
had given his son, clothing he had worn, and other items used in the
home. Unfortunately, I could go on and on about the details of people
I know whose lives were negatively impacted because of a bad choice.

Last year when I wrote about this topic in my Daily
I got an email from a reader who shared that he/she had been stealing
from the company he/she worked at for a long time. He/she started out
taking small things and over time seemed to do it more and more. They
don't know why. The person shared how embarrassed and ashamed they
were, and worried about what would happen if they got caught. Something
they should be worried about.

If you're one of those people who
have never had the urge to help yourself when an opportunity presents
itself, my hat is off to you. Keep it up and I hope the temptation
never arises.

If you're like a lot of people in retail who on
that rare occasion has a fleeting thought about doing something they
know they shouldn't do, don't be concerned. It's nothing but a
fleeting thought. Let it go and be thankful you didn't cross over that
line. There's a high price to pay if you do.

And if you're
someone who has crossed that line, don't do it again. There's not a
thing in the store or any amount of money worth what you will
experience if you get caught. Your life will be forever altered if
you're caught. And trust me, there's a good chance you will be caught.

The
reader who sent me the email about currently stealing in their store
ended by saying this, "I was once an honest person and I don't know how
that changed but I'm determined to change back."

I don't know if that person still receives our Daily
newsletter or not. I hope they do, and I hope they changed. With
internal theft we rarely get a second chance from the company but we
can always give ourselves another chance so we never have to worry
about it again.

Lest we never forget that the holiday is for giving and receiving, not taking.